


I love you

by Melime



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: M/M, Tumblr: otpprompts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-11-01
Updated: 2015-11-01
Packaged: 2018-04-29 11:56:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5126669
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The words were too charged, carried too much meaning, and yet they were oddly empty.</p>
            </blockquote>





	I love you

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Português brasileiro available: [Eu te amo](https://archiveofourown.org/works/5126813) by [Melime GreenLeaf (Melime)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Melime/pseuds/Melime%20GreenLeaf)



> [Imagine your OTP, for different but personal reasons, being unable to say “I love you”.](http://otpprompts.tumblr.com/post/55287188227/imagine-your-otp-for-different-but-personal)
> 
> Promptember day 1.

There is no such thing as love under the Qun, not the same way it exists in the South, not romantic love. Bull wasn’t even able to recognize it at first. How can you tell you are in love when the first time you heard about it was in your adulthood and you have never felt that before? The first step was their relationship becoming exclusive, and although no words were exchanged about it, they both started to treat it as something important. It was months after they were together that Bull first realized he had never felt this way before, and he didn’t know how to deal with this.

Dorian learnt very soon that he didn’t have the luxury of falling in love. He couldn’t make himself so vulnerable, allow another person such control of him. He still broke his own rule along his life, but as soon as he noticed his feelings growing, he would find a way to run away from them, to hide, even from himself. Sometimes, he wasn’t fast enough. Sometimes, he ended up alone to lick his wounds and try to mend his broken pieces. With time, he learnt to keep his feelings a secret, although he never found a way to stop himself from loving altogether.

When Bull became a Tal-Vashoth, he feared emotions above all else. Love is a passion and can too easily turn into hatred, become fuel to a rampage. So he tried to ignore how he felt about Dorian, tried to push him away, to keep him safe. It would be better this way, that things ended before he had a chance to learn what exactly Dorian made him feel, before he put words to feelings and that way made them all the more real.

When Dorian saw his father for the first time after so long, all this bottled up feelings came spiraling back. He feared he was making old mistakes again, that his love for Bull would be his undoing, and yet he didn’t want to give up on what they had. It was with a mix of fear and hope that he kept pushing forward, hoping that maybe this would be the time he wouldn’t get hurt, that this time what they had would be real.

They never said ‘I love you’ to one another, couldn’t. The words were too charged, carried too much meaning, and yet they were oddly empty. They said too much and not enough at once. But the feelings were there, poorly hidden under the surface, plain to anyone that bothered to pay attention. They called each other ‘kadan’ and ‘amatus’, worried about each other’s well-being, couldn’t stand to be apart. Somewhere along the way, the man who was raised believing that love was a dangerous thing, close to a disease, and the man who had to learn that love could be the worse weakness found each other. And although they couldn’t say it, to them love became safety, and it became strength.


End file.
